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I woke up in my creaky five-star Hyatt sofa bed...
Whew! A nightmare.
I had Da Best Sleep in my very own bed with no lumps, no strange creaks, no weird tilt. Thankyouthankyouthankyou. My back is not throbbing this morning.
I'm sitting in my own mess with my cup of coffee, in my teeshirt and sleep pants, hair all mussed up, with no thought of make up and high heels, and getting into my roofer growl mood so that I can yell at the boys on the roof (I know they have been slacking without me....). Back to the usual. Back to writing and wroofing.
For today, lots of quick reminiscing:
BEST PERSONAL MOMENT: getting to personally talk to my editor about my situation and the book delay. Things are still up in the air but she was very positive about the electronic download offer of Big Bad Wolf at eharlequin. It would be a great way to tide readers over till Virtually Hers.
MOST AWESOME SQUEE: I couldn't go to J.R. Ward's signing and sent my girls, Su and Leiha (The Asian Persuasion), to get an autographed book for me and J.R. Ward knew me and said nice things about me to Su and Leiha...how awesome is that?!
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: I almost tripped Nora Roberts at the bottom of the escalators one morning while rushing to meet with my editor. Ya, that would have been a disaster if I were responsible for splatting La Nora in the hotel lobby. Fortunately for me, I didn't.
GRRR MOMENT: BOOK SELLERS BEHAVING BADLY. Watching a small group of local book sellers committing daylight robbery. They ran into each free publishers signing and just grabbed a bunch of books off EVERY table, ran out, dumped them into HUMONGOUS boxes, then ran back in over and over till the boxes were full. Every. Signing. That's a few hundred authors times three or four books, so these women made off with at least a thousand dollars worth of books. They didn't stand in line to talk to the authors or get an autograph or two. I know they were book sellers because of their tags.
These women were just there to get free books to sell at their stores/websites. So not cool. Publishers provided these free books (about 100 an author) as a way to promote the books to conference attendees, and so attendees could get a chance to talk to their favorite authors as well as meet new ones.
Most book sellers are great people, don't get me wrong, and it's a pleasure to be able to thank them personally for getting our books in their stores and being so enthusiastic about our genre. These were just a few bad apples that made me shake my head when I saw them repeating their brazen act several times in one day.
MOST FUN MOMENT: Playing pool with Samantha James (CJ Barry). That was a total blast. That woman's a pool shark, dudes.
SWEETEST THING TO WATCH: Pamela Clare dancing with her mother at the Harlequin party.
MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Asking Gayle Wilson whether her name was spelled with two "r"s. I still have NO IDEA why I asked her that, since I knew she was Gayle. I blame it on starting the day without coffee. That must be it.
BOAST BOAST BOAST: I danced with Nora Roberts. Wheeeeeee. I did the hokey-pokey on the dance floor with La Nora, who totally owned it, by the way. It was fun boogeying with her.
SUPER YAY MOMENT: When Julia Quinn went to get her RITA, her first after finaling several times. She was so happy and brought a smile on everyone's faces. She GLOWED. Congrats again, Julia!
YIKES EXPERIENCE: For the authors whose books for the Literacy Signing had been mistakenly put in the GOODY ROOM. They had no books to sign at all, something that every author love to do at a conference. The books were snatched up like hotcakes, I'm sure, but still, it couldn't have been too fun to sit at a table for several hours with nothing to sign. A few authors affected: Marjorie Liu and Liz Maverick, which was disappointing because I'd wanted to pick up their new books at the conference.
A FEW MOMENTS OF SILENCE: For authors who had recently passed away--Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and Ronda Thompson. The world of romance has lost some bright stars these past two weeks.
CRAZY AWESOME YAY SQUEEE MOMENT: When I bumped into Nora Roberts AGAIN at the bottom of the SAME escalator and she waved and CAME TO ME and said, "I had such a great time! Wasn't that a great time on the dance floor last night?" Squeeeeeeee. Squeeeeeee. It's my fangrrr moment, 'kay?
MOST INDECISIVE MOMENTS: Hmmm...grassy knoll...nap...grassy knoll...air-conditioned room...grassy knoll...catch up with email...grassy knoll...air-conditioned bar...grassy knoll...nap... I never did make it to the grassy knoll.
MOST DECISIVE MOMENT: Walking past a store on the way to the Harlequin Party and seeing this BLUE dress and buying it for the gala. Now, that was quick shopping! ;-)
NICEST SHOCK: When a woman introduced herself as Allison Brennan's mom at my signing told me that Allison sent her to pick up THE PROTECTOR to read. Wow. WOW! Of course, now I'm sweating bullets about whether she'd like the book.
OVERHEARD NAUGHTINESS: A bunch of authors went to MEDIEVAL TIMES and had a rocking wild time. I bet! ;-)
That's all I could come up with this morning before going back on the roof. I'm so glad I have good news about a possible e-book for you guys to make up for the delay!
More later.
P/S The flight home was not delayed. However, one of my suitcases (the one with mostly books) didn't make it. Hopefully it's just sitting in Atlanta somewhere and I'll get it back today or tomorrow.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Post Conference Thoughts of Uber Moments
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8 comments:
One of my most favorite moments - seeing Jenn in her fabulous blue dress for the first time. You looked gorgeous, baby!!
I have to say, you have more energy than anyone I know. You are THE DANCING QUEEN. I bask in your coolness!! :)
I'm so glad everything worked out with your editor!!! Whew!!!
Hope you get your other suitcase back soon!!
XOXOXO
Su
I'm relieved you made it home! I wondered how Atlanta would treat you, LOL. Sorry about the luggage, jeebus!
JR Ward loved you chick!
It was so wonderful spending time with you in Dallas. I wish I would have had one of the Jenna drink specials with you before we left. We'll have to make sure to take care of that soon.
You are just so groovy, have been looking forward to hearing about your adventures all day and you so delievered! It just sounds like the best of times and am so glad you had a groovy time. Super cool news about the download to, very cool!
Hope you have more fun being back at work than me... had a wee one in my class come up to me today and say, "Uh, Mrs M, I feel really sick," all while going the most fab shade of green and standing so close (I think he wanted a hug)! Ahhhh! Much running and holding of heads, I am awesome in a crisis, really! *snort*
Long, long day, now going to have sleep. Nite!!!!
I really enjoyed your blogs while you were at conference. Glad you're back safe and sound. Hope your books show up safe and sound too!! :)
Leilani
BEST PERSONAL MOMENT: getting to personally talk to my editor about my situation and the book delay. Things are still up in the air
It's good to hear that things are still up in the air. That means it can go either way. Right?
Love the entry. Sounds like soooo much fun. If I'm there next year, I'm staying longer, that's for sure. *g*
Glad you had a good time @ conference. 'cept for the bed part.
Hey, could've been worse. My girlies and I were too cheap to spring for another room in Philly so I slept on the 2 room chairs--2 ROLLING chairs. Yeah, no. Not one of my better ideas.
Good to see you got your groove on and made off with some stuff to read. Too bad lost in transit. But you expected as much, no? Hopefully Homeland Security's enjoying the books and will return to you...eventually.
Su,
It was fun watching the Asian Persuasion strutting their stuff! ;-)
Lauren,
Yeah, well, ONE Atlanta Airport story per trip is enough! It's good to be home, among my own mess.
Leiha,
Thank you for getting that book for me! JR Ward was one of the few authors I really wanted to meet, but didn't get a chance this conference either, darnit.
I'm glad you enjoyed the conference!
Sarah,
Hey, I aim to please ;-). Sounds like you had one of those days...sick kid in class, so not fun! (((Hugs)))
Casee,
Yeah, that means there's still a chance that I'll be slotted earlier. Let's hope so.
SQ,
I felt really bad about the delay and so came up with this idea. I think it'd work, but what do I know? I think it's simple until they all tell me all the difficulties involved ;-). Keep your fingers crossed for me, hmm?
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